The effects of emotion on children’s attention: Insights from electroencephalography

• In Event: 1-109 - Executive functioning in emotional, motivational and social contexts

Integrative Statement

Emotions are ubiquitous, and have profound effects on cognition and behaviour, whether experienced by an individual or encountered in interactions with others. Regulating emotions is vital for adaptive behaviour, and is an important developmental task in early and middle childhood. We examined how emotions influenced children’s attention and its neural correlates using Flanker paradigms modified to introduce emotion in two different ways. In Study 1, stimuli were faces with task-irrelevant emotional expressions; in Study 2, negative emotion was induced by having the task “malfunction” by freezing intermittently. The studies included independent samples of children representing early (4- to 5-years-old) and middle childhood (7- to 8-years-old). Neural correlates were examined by recording electroencephalography (EEG) during task performance.

In Study 1, the Flanker task required children to respond based on the color of a border around a central target face while ignoring flankers with the same (Congruent) or different (Incongruent) border colors. The central target face displayed an emotional expression (Happy, Angry, Neutral) that children were instructed to ignore. Scalp-recorded EEG was averaged to create event-related potentials (ERPs). Children’s performance was affected by emotion, and was contingent on the valence of the emotion. On Happy trials, children responded more accurately. In contrast, on Angry trials, children responded more slowly. Angry trials also elicited a longer N2 latency, an ERP associated with cognitive control. However, there were no interactions between emotion and flanker condition, suggesting that the effects of emotion and flanker interference were independent. Children’s overall task performance improved with age. In addition, younger children displayed a more pronounced late-occurring frontal negativity than older children, suggesting that the effect of angry emotion lasted longer in younger children and that they may have had difficulty disengaging attention from them.

In Study 2, children were asked to respond based on the direction of a central target fish, while ignoring flanker fish that faced either the same (Congruent) or opposite (Incongruent) direction, or flanker starfish (Neutral). After a block of Baseline trials, emotion (Frustration) was induced by intermittently imposing a delay between the child’s response and feedback presentation, such that the task appeared to have stopped working momentarily. The task concluded with a block of trials without delays (Recovery). EEG oscillation in bandwidths of interest was analyzed. Children’s overall performance was similar across the blocks, but their response immediately following delay trials was slowed. Comparing EEG across blocks, alpha activity was increased in the Recovery block, indicting attentional disengagement. However, at the trial level, alpha activity decreased transiently following delay trials, suggesting greater recruitment of attentional resources. In girls only, increased theta activity was observed during frustration induction, signalling greater cognitive control.

These findings provide insights into how emotions influence children’s cognitive performance and neural correlates. Study 1 showed a facilitative effect of positive emotion on cognitive performance. Both studies found detrimental effects of negative emotion, whether presented via emotional faces or frustration induction. Furthermore, negative emotions appear to recruit more cognitive resources, as reflected by the EEG findings, perhaps reflecting regulatory processes.

Authors

• Aishah Abdul Rahman, University of Alberta
  Presenting Author

• Jonah Elke, University of Alberta
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sandra Wiebe, University of Alberta
  Non-Presenting Author